Book on Ghana’s music genre “High-life” launched

A book entitled, “Ghana High Life,” was launched in Accra on Thursday.

The book, a collaborative effort of Mr Florent Mazzolini, a French writer and African music advocate and Dr Kwesi Owusu, a veteran music producer, focuses on the golden age of high-life music in Ghana, from the 1950s to the 1980s.

It is an evocation of the history of Ghana, during the years preceding independence to the Rawlings era.

Dr Owusu said it was a big misconception that high life was no more.

“The thing with high-life is that every generation of people come up with their own version. Thus we had jazz, we had burger high-life and now we have hip-life.”

He said high-life would not grow, “unless we re-establish its production base”.

Dr Owusu said the toils of musicians were paid back fully only if piracy of their finished works was effectively dealt with.

He urged stakeholders to join hands in the fight against piracy.

Ace high-life musician, Gyedu Blay Ambolley, said the book would help in making the younger generation know a lot more about what had happened before them.

“Let us continue with such historical documentation or we would lose our heritage,” he said.

Source: GNA